Welcome To Statistics Explained

Statistics Explained, your guide to European statistics.
Statistics Explained is an official Eurostat website presenting statistical topics in an easily understandable way. Together, the articles make up an encyclopedia of European statistics for everyone, completed by a statistical glossary clarifying all terms used and by numerous links to further information and the latest data and metadata, a portal for occasional and regular users.

To find the information you need, please select a theme from the menu below or use the coloured boxes on the right. The search function (alt-f) can also be used.

New / updated articles

The data in this article show the most recent annual rates of change for the euro area headline inflation and its main components issued by Eurostat. The figures presented are early estimates of euro area inflation. More ...

This article provides recent statistics on hourly labour costs in the European Union (EU).
In 2014, average hourly labour costs were estimated at EUR 24.6 in the EU-28 and at EUR 29.2 in the euro area (EA-18). However, this average masks significant gaps between EU Member States, with hourly labour costs ranging between EUR 3.8 and EUR 40.3. More ...

Eurostat disseminates early results for severe material deprivation rates so that trends in poverty levels can be tracked more closely. 2014 data are available for over half the European Union (EU) Member States, and Iceland. The coverage and the timeliness is expected to increase in the coming years. More ...

Did you know that....

In 2013, the share of employees working part-time was highest in the Netherlands (52.4 % of employees), followed by Germany (27.6 %) and Austria (26.5 %), while the lowest shares were recorded in Romania (0.7 %), Bulgaria (2.2 %) and Slovakia (5.1 %). Read more...

Focus on

This article provides information on recent statistics in relation to tourism in the European Union (EU). Tourism plays an important role in the EU because of its economic and employment potential, as well as its social and environmental implications. Tourism statistics are not only used to monitor the EU’s tourism policies but also its regional and sustainable development policies.

Main statistical findings

Tourism — demand and supply

Residents (aged 15 and above) from within the EU-28 [1] made 1.1 billion tourism trips in 2013, for personal or business purposes. Short trips (of one to three nights) accounted for more than half (57.5 %) of the total number of trips made (see Table 1), while three quarters (75.3 %) of all trips made were to domestic destinations, with the remainder abroad.

In some EU Member States, over half of the total number of tourism trips made in 2013 were to destinations abroad; this was the case for Luxembourg, Belgium, Malta and Slovenia (as well as Switzerland). However, less than 10 % of the trips taken by residents of Romania, Spain, Greece (data are for 2012) and Portugal were abroad. These figures appear to be influenced by both the size of the Member States and their geographical location (smaller and more northerly countries tended to report a higher propensity for their residents to travel abroad).